1 comments about Art Across America: A Comprehensive Guide to American Art Museums and Exhibition Galleries.

1. We purchased this book from an art museum while on a driving trip. We used it all during out trip to make our stops a learning pleasure. It is amazing what wonderful art is out there in small museums. This book will be used whenever we plan a trip. If would be perfect for someone traveling in a motor home.

No comments about Visions of Modern Art: Painting and Sculpture from The Museum of Modern Art.

2 comments about Great Private Collections of Imperial Russia.

1. I am surprised that Russian nobility possesses great art collection that worth millions of dollars in today's money. Great works by Picasso, Poussin, Monet, Gainsborough, Renoir, Gaugin and other impressionists took pride in the private galleries of russian noble families.
   
   This book will amaze you of the artistic side and wealth of russian nobility.
   
   My only concern is that the pictures are mostly of black and white. Too wordy and contains few interesting information about the paintings and artists.
   
   Still, I gave 5 stars for the effort of coming up with this extraordinary book.



2. Fantastic insight into the great private collections of Imperial Russia.
   Beautifully illustrated with photos of the collection's.

1 comments about Contemporary Erotic Drawing.

1. I like the drawings. Georgia Marsh and Danica Phelps offer sensitive sketches of couples coupled, Gina Magrid explores the boundary between clinical and erotic, Ruth Marten baffles, Scott Martin amuses, and Kim McCarty disturbs. Juan Gomez evokes something of complex plumbing and Popeye's Olive Oyl in his almost-legible connections. As a whole, the collection displays a high level of artistry. End notes add to the reader's knowledge of each artist, but a few essays at the start will remind some readers of why they avoid art commentary. The book as an art book disappoints me, though.
   
   As a book of drawings, it's beautifully designed, and I mean that in the least complimentary way. Each page is a jewel of layout and composition: light, airy, and infused with importance by its broad margins. Captions feature tiny, pale print that might not suit older eyes. My gripe, though, is that the book layout fails in its role as vehicle for the art. It pushes itself too much to the front, like a butler that intrudes into every family photo. This should have been about the art itself. Instead, layout squeezes the artworks into shrunken boxes, so small that crucial details become illegible (e.g. p.72, 44, 64, 76). Even when an image's details are called out, they sometimes take only postage stamp space in a near-blank page (p.36-7, 43). These tiny reproductions become especially frustrating when I see the original image's dimensions - 32x32", reproduced about 3x3", in a page over 8x11" (p.61).
   
   It galls me to say that Marshall McLuhan was right in this case. The medium is the message. The art should have been the message and is quite enjoyable, when it's legible. Mostly, though, it's a book about book design, and not a book about the subjects on its pages.
   
   -- wiredweird
   
   Four stars for the art, one star for book design, and I'm rounding up to give it three stars.

No comments about Martha Rosler: Positions in the Life World.

No comments about The Art of Chinese Ceramics.

No comments about 160 Years of Art at the St. Louis Mercantile Library: A Handbook to the Collections.

No comments about Masterpieces of the British Museum.

No comments about Museums in the 21st Century.

No comments about California Light.